“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart.

I’ll have them keep the master locked when they clean.” I looked at his hand holding mine.

A man who could construct a flawless lie in three seconds flat — a man who would use the innocence of his own five-year-old son as a prop to hide his betrayal — was not a man I owed the mercy of a quiet, private divorce.

“I love you too, Julian,” I said, and smiled my picture-perfect smile.